Intellectual Property Policy for fan-based activities
Updated 3 Jan 2006

Introduction

This document sets out our (The Big Play’s) policy towards unauthorized and unlicensed use of our copyright imagery and trade marks by fans of our games as part of their hobby, rather than commercial gain.

It is addressed primarily to those who want to exchange news, information, house rules, and so on via the Internet in general and the World Wide Web in particular.

These basic principles apply equally well to other hobby activities, for example, fanzine publications. As you can imagine, we receive many requests from players and hobbyists from all corners of the globe who are asking to use our intellectual property in many different ways. We love the imaginative ideas that hobbyists have for our intellectual property. Unfortunately, we get so many requests that we find it difficult to reply to everyone. Accordingly, we have produced this policy that states what you can and cannot do in relation to our intellectual property.

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The Big Play reserves the right to change this policy without notice.

The contents of this policy are in no way meant or intended to be a license of any nature.

Most uses of our intellectual property without a license are likely to be an infringement; however, The Big Play is unlikely to object to any infringement if it adheres to this policy.

Please also note that we reserve the right at any time and without notice to insist that you cease or alter your use of our IP - we reserve this right so we can comply with any licenses that we have with third parties. We want to strongly emphasize this point and would ask you to keep this in mind at all times when using our IP.

What ‘Intellectual Property’ (IP) means and why it is important for you know

Intellectual Property is: intellectual (as opposed to tangible/physical) because it deals with concepts and creations of the mind that you can’t actually touch; and it's property, because it can be bought and sold, transferred from one person to another - just like any other property.

For example, if we produce a game, expansion or model, we can sell the physical object (the game or model itself) to one person AND still retain the right to reproduce it (the copyright).

For the purposes of this document, we're concerned with two main areas of intellectual property - copyright (the right to copy a work) and trade marks - the names, badges, logos, or signs used to distinguish one company’s products from another’s.

The reason you need to know this is fairly straightforward. The laws that govern intellectual property are such that we have to make a visible effort to actively police and protect our rights or risk losing them, and if we lose control of our IP rights then we lose the ability to create all the exciting games that we want you to enjoy. The unauthorized use of someone else’s intellectual property (whether it be by an individual or a company) is against the law.

Counterfeiting/Peer-to-Peer File sharing

Counterfeiting is a crime in most countries worldwide. In addition to the other penalties, you can go to prison for counterfeiting. The same is true of peer-to-peer file sharing - if you have not paid for the material and you download it using peer-to-peer software, you are engaging in illegal activity.

BE AWARE that we will happily spend money bringing counterfeiters and other infringers to justice, regardless of the cost. We therefore want to make it clear that The Big Play will not tolerate counterfeiting of its products nor any other unauthorized use of its trade marks, trade dress, copyright material, or other intellectual property and always seeks the maximum civil and criminal penalties that the law allows

Fan-based usage of Intellectual Property

We appreciate that if you enjoy something you like to immerse yourself inside the world and may well want to produce a number of projects just for the fun of it.

Accordingly, you can do quite a lot of things with our intellectual property without having a formal license with us. But there are also some general principles that you need to keep in mind, and then there are the things that you definitely cannot do.

PLEASE NOTE that any work you create using our intellectual property is not “owned” by you. It is called a “derivative work” and those parts based upon our IP do not give rise to their own copyright. Please bear this in mind when using our IP.

General Principles

Please make it clear that your use is unofficial by including some wording to the effect that, for example, “This website is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by The Big Play Limited."

Are people likely to be confused as to whether your website or any material was produced by The Big Play just by looking at it? If so, then you need to alter it. In other words, do not try to make your material look “official.”

Please do not change our trademarks in any way (e.g., stretch or deform them).

Include the following disclaimer on your website/publication:

This website/publication is completely unofficial and in no way endorsed by The Big Play Limited. The Big Play, The Big Play Logo, The Big Play strapline, minizoomerz, the minizoomerz logo and the minizoomerz strapline are TM and/or © Copyright The Big Play Ltd 2005-2006. Used without permission. No challenge to their status intended. All Rights Reserved to their respective owners.

Please make the origins of the intellectual property very clear, in other words, make sure that from a brief review of your material people know that you are unofficially using The Big Play’s IP.

What you cannot do with The Big Play’s Intellectual Property

Other than a few exemptions, The Big Play is not obliged to let anyone use its IP at all (for example, it's a widely held misconception that you can freely make use of someone else’s copyrights, without their permission, as long as it’s for your own private use - this is currently not an automatic exemption to copyright), and accordingly we always insist that our IP is treated with the respect that we feel that it deserves.

So, if you are using or want to use our intellectual property and you do not have a written license with us, you must not:

• Use The Big Play’s intellectual property in relation to any commercial activity - this includes, for example, paying a printer to print some flyers for you, obtaining sponsorship, or selling non-Big Play materials using our trademarks and imagery.
• Make any direct copies and/or scans of The Big Play publications, images, or other materials. This includes website materials and downloads. We would however suggest that you produce your own materials (as long as you follow the other requirements of this policy).
• Use our trademarks in respect of your domain name
• Use our intellectual property in relation to any third party products or third party intellectual property.
• Alter our trademarks in any way.
• Use any of our IP without appropriately crediting the IP and using the appropriate disclaimer in accordance with this policy (see above).
• Create, distribute, or use any material that is not consistent with the functionality, atmosphere, and parameters of the relevant game universe as created and owned by The Big Play
• State that anything that you create using The Big Play’s intellectual property is “official”
• Create, distribute, or use any material that is derogatory, obscene, or offensive.
• Create, distribute, or use any material that devalues any of The Big Play’s products in any way.

Guidance and Examples of activities

Keep it Clean : Our games are enjoyed by players of all ages and so we must stress that you keep any material produced in conjunction with or associated with our intellectual property at an appropriate level of decency. If it had a movie rating we would expect it to be PG (fantasy/sci-fi action adventure).

Websites and Domain Names : Please do not use one of our trademarks to directly identify your web site (e.g., The minizoomerz website). This right is reserved for The Big Play and formal licensees only.

This does not mean that you can not use our trademarks to talk about our material, it just means you need to make it clear that description is the reason why you are using them (e.g., “Turbo Charged - my web page devoted to the minizoomerz racing game by the Big Play Ltd.”) is fine because you're using our trademarks to simply describe what your web page is about and because it identifies us as the publishers of the game. Also, please do not use any material from the official Big Play websites. Instead, we suggest that you make your own.

Do not use our trademarks or distinctive names for your domain names these are for The Big Play and formal licensees only.

Educational Use : Unfortunately, we currently cannot give official “permission” for students to use our IP in relation to their studies for reasons of possible licensing conflicts.

Bandwidth Theft/Mirroring Resources : We do not tolerate deep linking to the pictures, images, PDFs or other downloads on our website. Such activity is bandwidth theft. Also, do not mirror the resources that we have on our websites. So, if you want other people to see the materials that we have produced, please use a simple HTML link to the relevant web page.

Policy Changes

The Big Play Ltd. reserves the right to change and update this policy without warning so please check back regularly.

Thank you for reading through the above documentation